Just jumped over the cliff....


 
Allen Fraley

Allen Fraley

TVWBB Member
...and ordered a 22.5 WSM, Weber chimney, and a Mav ET732. I've been prowling around here for a couple of weeks as well as other research and I think I made good decisions on what to buy.:cool:
Should have it in about a week. I'll have a bunch of questions and from what I see here on this site, I'll get plenty of answers:D

Should I have any concern about using my cooker on a wooden deck? I have seen some of the mods listed here to catch grease and deflect heat away from the deck such as the water heater pan.
I'll do some of the mods I see here but will only do the probe grommet to start with.
Looking forward to this new hobby in my old age:)
 
Allen, congrats! There are automotive drip pans you can buy at auto parts stores or Wally world to catch anything that might fall. But really nothing should drip out if the WSM. If dont have a place to set a possibly greasy lid then I might look into the lid mods on here. And of course you dont want to set a chimney full of lit coals on the deck either.
 
Like Tim said you can buy a rectangular drip pan at the auto store or a round water heater pan from the home improvement stores. Either will help to protect your deck from any heat and scuffing from the legs if it would happen.
You can also pick up a 10x10 or so paver from HD or Lowes that you can use to sit the charcoal chimney on when starting it. This is a good substitute if you don't have another grill or the like to start it on.. That will protect your deck from any scorches/burns.
You will also be happy with the probe grommet mod or some even cut a notch in the edge to do essentially the same. I did the grommet mod myself and its been great to feed multiple probes through.

Have fun with the new smoker and post a bunch of pics of all the smokes you will be doing.
 
Congratulations Allen and Happy New Year. I would give some serious thought to how you will be lighting your smoker. I have a chinmey and love it but in spite of BBQ matts etc. I have more than once dropped a small ember on my 4 year old deck. I wish I had a cement patio but I don't. I am lighting an OTP and my smoker so the chimney does get carried from one to the other. Unfortunately the deck has suffered some minor injuries to create some great food.
 
Yeah I'll pick up a drip pan tomorrow. I do have about 100 12X12" patio blocks. I might lay some of them down and make a pad to set it on and make it large enough to set things on.
Man I just checked out the price of a Thermapen:-( I'll save my pennies for a future purchase since I already robbed my piggy bank.
 
Welcome to the board Allen. You will soon find out this is THE best place with some of the nicest people. I am fairly new here and it has shortened my learning curve significantly.

The one thing I will ad here is that while most of the people on here have Mavericks, I have a thermoworks and just to let you know they are great too. I have the dual probe unit. As Kenny said, they {thermo's} are game changers.

Oh and I got my drip pan at Wally world for 11 bucks, then I went back and bought more to make a wind screen.

Good luck and look forward to seeing some of your cooks
 
The prob is not protecting the deck from the cooker but the stray coal or two from the chimney starter IMO. I had a stray caol I didn't notice until too late and ended up doing some unplanned deck work. It could have been BAD. I now use those grill mats from Lowes. Your paver idea would work just fine.
 
Allen Fraley said:
Should I have any concern about using my cooker on a wooden deck? I have seen some of the mods listed here to catch grease and deflect heat away from the deck such as the water heater pan.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum from Northern VA & you'll love the new toys. As for what's under the cooker, I recently asked that same question HERE.
Transferring meat to/from the cooker has been the only messy part. Dumping 30 lit coals from the chimney into the 22.5 hasn't been a problem.
 
Got home this evening and there it was sitting on my front porch! 15 minutes later is was assembled in my living room. Wife was impressed:)
Still waiting for my chimney and and Mav.
Will use it on Saturday.
Guess I should move it out of the living room first huh....:)
 
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I looks like I'm not gonna get my chimney until next week. Doing a cook this Saturday.
How should I start my charcoal down inside the ring?
I don't want to use lighter fluid at all:mad:
 
Allen Fraley said:
I looks like I'm not gonna get my chimney until next week. Doing a cook this Saturday.
How should I start my charcoal down inside the ring?
I don't want to use lighter fluid at all:mad:
Click to expand...

Do you have a propane torch? I used it a few times to start mine in my kettle before I got a chimney. Just hit a few spots and get it going and it will ignite. It will just take more time to get to temp than dumping a chimney of lit coals in the ring.
 
Welcome to the group! Of all the cliffs you might have jumped over, this was a good choice.
 
Another possibility is a #10 coffee can with both ends removed. Using a church key, make 6 or so opening around the parameter of one end of can. Place the can on the charcoal grate with the openings facing down and use like the weber starter. Once the charcoal is ready, one needs to use tongs to lift the can off the coals rather than dump the coals like the weber.

This method makes one appreciate the Weber starter's heat shield !

Bob
 
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Finally got to use my smoker today:cool:
My 3 year old grandson was coming over to help 'PawPaw'. So I sent him this pic to let him know I was ready for his help:D
WSM01.jpg

We smoked about 8 pounds of wings. They disappeared real quick.
 
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